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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26871022">Rosie and the Road Less Traveled</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/boogiewrites/pseuds/boogiewrites'>boogiewrites</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Frontier (TV 2016)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>1960s, 1970s, American Road Trip, Coming of Age, Declan Harp AU, Eventual Relationships, Eventual Sex, F/M, Fluffy, Frontier AU, Life Lessons, Road Trip, Romance, Sex Drugs and Rock and Roll</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 19:16:03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>4,946</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26871022</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/boogiewrites/pseuds/boogiewrites</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Rosie has made a bold decision and decided to leave her monotonous life. She sets out to create her own with a group of misfits traveling across America, post-Vietnam during the 1970s. She breaks out of her shy and insecure, sheltered shelf to have an adventure where she learns the realities of life outside her former cookie-cutter existence. She experiences, a year of sex, drugs, and rock and roll as the group of ex-soldiers and free spirits change her worldview and show her another way. She meets the charming but damaged Declan who takes her under his wing. Will a budding romance for this blossoming Rose prove to be her gift from the universe for making the hard decision to be her own woman?</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Declan Harp/Original Female Character(s), Declan Harp/Other(s), Declan Harp/Reader, Declan Harp/You</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Rosie and the Road Less Traveled</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Rosie awoke in the same pink and frill filled bedroom she had every day of her life so far. She could smell the same coffee she wasn’t allowed to have. The scent filled up their Better Homes and Gardens modeled modest family home settled in a suburb full of pastel houses with the same pastel cars in their driveway. It was polished and performative, just like Rosie’s mother who was standing in her doorway looking like a copy of June Cleaver.</p><p>“You’ll be late for John to pick you up! Don’t keep a man waiting! A wife must be preemptive and pretty dear.” She exits as quickly as she’d entered. Rosie is left looking to her favorite childhood toy and only friend, Booger Bear, with a sigh before starting her day. Not much had changed in Rose Anderson’s life since she was a child. She was raised by older parents, very strict and traditional. Which would explain why they’d agreed to her engagement so fervently. She was 24 and unmarried and being a spinster was not an option according to them. So she was having yet another huge life decision made for her by someone else. She couldn’t remember the last time she had held her own opinion or made up her own mind. She had fear instilled within her from a young age that she was less than and this was used to keep her under control. Being different as she was with her ghostly white skin and pale blonde hair, her albinism stood out among her peers. She wore glasses and a constantly apologetic look on her face. Her childlike treatment was clear on her face as her features were baby round. A button nose and large light blue eyes with cheeks that always had a flush to them showed her softness unwillingly. She truly did look like a baby animal, naive, and easy prey.</p><p>This was a common theme among the treatment she’d had from men so far in her life. She didn’t expect any different. Her mother had cried tears of relief when George had asked for her hand. She would finally be able to tell her bridge club that her daughter had at least something normal going on about her. The cruel and belittling words she’d heard her whole life only made sense to continue hearing from this new person that would now be in charge of her she was told. If nothing had changed in her life up to this point, why would it ever?</p><p>The fact that George never showed didn’t surprise her. So when she went into town to run wedding errands on her own she wasn’t surprised. Wasn’t the first time, wouldn’t be the last. He usually disappears at night and not in the morning so that was unusual but she went through her day with the same polite smile she always did. A smile that said sorry for existing. She called her home from the library, offering to see if her mother needed anything for supper. She hadn’t but she had heard from George’s mother, and she hadn’t seen him either. So it was now Rosie’s job to find him, as they’d be married soon.</p><p>She sat defeated on a bench to rest as the sun started to set. She’d asked at the stores on the square and no one had seen him. Luckily for her, she’d sat down in front of the Beauty Parlour and it being a small town, everyone knows everyone, one of the ladies there knew who sweet little odd Rosie was and took pity on her. </p><p>“I know it’s not my place to say so baby but that man of yours is no count. You know that right?”</p><p>“I’m sorry ma'am?”</p><p>“You were in town all day today alone, doin' your dress and all that right? For the wedding?”</p><p>“Yes ma’am.”</p><p>“And he’s been across county lines getting drunk as a skunk.” She shakes her head. “Again.”</p><p>“Oh.” Rosie sighs and looks to the ground. “Do you know where he is?” She asks reluctantly.</p><p>“No where no sweet thing like you needs to be goin'.”</p><p>“I need to get him home. His mother’s worried.”</p><p>“She should be. Ain't your mama worried about you out here alone?”</p><p>“She said I have to do real women’s work and take care of George as best I can. He’s mine now and I better start acting like it and go… find him.”</p><p>The kind woman sighs and feels bad for the poor thing. But it wasn’t an uncommon story. “He’s out at the bar past the county line. Neon sign, bikes out front, can’t miss it. It’s on the right.” She says with a groan.</p><p>“Up 25E?” She asks already getting to her feet.</p><p>“Yes, baby now be careful. I’m only telling you this because someone’s gotta help you out, honey. Maybe it’s time you helped yourself huh?”</p><p>“I’m doing what any good wife and daughter would do ma'am.”</p><p>“Life’s not about being good for other people. You have to think about what’s good for you. What do you want? Do you want to marry George?”</p><p>“Ma'am what a silly question.”</p><p>“That’s not the enthusiastic YES I should be hearing from a bride to be is it?”</p><p>Rosie doesn’t know how to reply and just looks worried for a moment with her wide eyes.</p><p>“Go before it gets darker baby. Be careful. Take care of yourself.” She says as Rosie scurries across the square to the car.</p><p>She did love getting to drive around. Something she’d not been allowed to do until recently. So a trip out of town on a lovely evening was something that got her very excited.</p><p>She had held onto that moment of happiness as she drove out of town. A perfect evening with a chill after the sun went down. She could hear frogs and crickets as she left the roads full of cookie-cutter homes and drove into a more forested area.</p><p>She had a comfortable smile on her face until the trees cleared for a patch and showed a roadhouse. This had to be the place. She pulled in with a mix match of very nice and very beat down cars. Some buses and small caravans lined along the perimeter. She could hear music coming from inside the metal and wood walls. There were men three times her size all around. They were an odd mix of trendy sleazy men with feathered hair and grizzly biker men and they were all chain-smoking. Everyone looked as confused as she did as she entered the building. If she was polite and direct there was no reason these gentlemen had to give her any trouble. She’d heard about these sorts from her mother. Bikers, greasers, all sinners, and a dirty lot to associate with.</p><p>But Rosie had always seen glimpses of people in the magazines. The intense men on their bikes with a scantily clad woman who looked both elated and aroused clutched to his back as they rode through the great American Route 66. They looked like they were having fun, she thought. She thought they looked free and those were things she longed to know how they felt. But there was no room for these things in her life. So although she should be afraid to be around these people, she was actually quite excited. She fantasized with already blushed shy cheeks about striking up a conversation with one of them and finding out what they were really like.</p><p>“You lost sweetheart?” The man in glasses with his arms crossed at the door asks her.</p><p>“I’m here to fetch my husband- my fiancé.” She corrects herself.</p><p>“You with a man that comes to a place like this?”</p><p>“His name is George. He is a fan of a strong drink and a cigar. And apparently, his frequenting of this place is something everyone in the town knew about but me.” she admits freely as she wasn’t one to have any reason to hide bits of herself. Everyone could be a friend in her eyes. She entered every interaction with a genuine curiosity it was honestly a bit hard to be rude to her.</p><p>“Ah.” He nods and understands. “Go on in, sweetheart” he holds open the door for her and watches her stand and take it all in for a moment. He chuckles and then sighs, “Poor little thing.” he mutters.</p><p>Through an old western saloon style inner door she enters with a delighted smile. “How charming!” She says to herself. She walked into a rather large room full of gambling tables. A bar on one end and a stage on the other. Panning over to meet the stage last, she’s hit with a thump of bass in her chest by way of her feet. It rumbled into the floor as she tentatively approached. She’d never seen live music before. She supposed choir and church and talent shows didn’t really count. There were electric guitars and men with no shirts and girls without bras and she was enthralled. She had heard a few rock songs by way of sneaking into a poor reception radio station when she was left alone in the car. She loved it. But it was something only classless people were apart of. Or so she was told. But these people looked the same as those in the magazines. A very tall and dark man played the instrument causing her to experience a very pleasant vibration through her body. He was shirtless and sweating and had a large tattoo on his arm. A chain from his worn dark jeans that bounced with every pluck of his long fingers. Next to him a smaller man, pale and singing with delightfully large blonde curly hair. He sang beautifully she thought. He wore a shirt unbuttoned and tucked into pants so tight she could see a bulge that ripped her from her fantasy of being as cool and free as they were. She turns around quickly and moves towards the bar.</p><p>She finds George in his work clothes, the navy not being blotched by black oils and spills told her he also hadn’t been to work. She wears her disappointment in her face clearly for a moment before trying to put on that mask her mother taught her to wear. Never show him that you’re upset. Anger is unseemly on a lady. But this did make her angry. Her red face made it obvious she was holding in red hot emotion. Her smile was hollow and her eyes gave her away.</p><p>“Hello, George. I believe it’s time we got home.” She says with a hand to his shoulder.</p><p>“How’d you find me here?” He asks with a dramatic turn on his bar stool, and he was in true skunk form.</p><p>“A person in town suggested it. Your mother is worried about you. Can we please go home?”</p><p>“You can. I’m staying here.”</p><p>“Please George I have to get you home. Both our parents expect me to take care of you and that’s what I’m doing.”</p><p>“What if I don’t want you to take care of me? Huh? What if I don’t want anything to do with you?”</p><p>Her throat felt tight. She was not accustomed to being spoken to in such a way since she was bullied when she was young. The eyes she could feel on her from a growing audience he was causing made her feel all tingly and nervous. He looked at her with disgust and the shame she usually felt was quickly turning into anger in this new over-stimulating environment.</p><p>“Do you think I want to be here?”</p><p>“Huh?”</p><p>“Do you think I wanted to run all the errands myself today for my own wedding? And make excuses for your absence all day and have people look at me with pity. Because they knew you were here. Again from the looks of you.”</p><p>“Well, I’m only here because of YOU.” He spits back.</p><p>“Me?” She squeaks with growing confidence that makes her take a deep breath and steady herself. “I have been nothing but an ideal fiancé from the beginning of this. YOU asked for this. Not me.”</p><p>“I didn’t ask for it! You did!”</p><p>They both looked at each other confused. “I was told you asked for my hand.”</p><p>“Hell no my parents told me I had to say yes to your parents offer or they’d cut me off and send me to the army.”</p><p>They both blink at each other for a moment. “This is…” she takes a shaker breath. “I’m in an arranged marriage.” She whispers and feels a betrayal deep in her chest. She’d been lied to. Her parents lied, her fiancé lied, the whole town and only one person has the decency to tell her where George was. It hurt like a knife might she thought as her hands held fast to her stomach.</p><p>“Are you like...retarded too? Ugh geez. Of course, it is! Why would I want to be with a freak like you?”</p><p>It’s as if he’d culminated every fear she’d ever had into a single sentence. All her thoughts of not fitting in, of something being wrong with her. She’d been right all along. “Well, I don’t want to be with a mean drunk like you!” She says back with a face that showed her first real emotion in years.</p><p>“I am not a drunk.”</p><p>“Yes you are! The whole town gossips about it behind your back. Your parents threaten to send you off if you don’t start acting like an adult. You try to take advantage of ME when I’ve never been anything but nice to you! You are MEAN and you are a DRUNK!”</p><p>He moves fast and grabs hold of her arms tightly. Enough to make her cry out and wince. “You listen here you little freak of nature. If you’re gonna be with me you’re gonna respect me as a good wife would.”</p><p>“Is there a problem here?” The same tall man from the stage asks, towering over George.</p><p>“Buzz off bud. This is between me and my girl.”</p><p>“It’s not when you talk to her like that, loud enough for whole damn bar to hear and then put your hands on her.</p><p>“Why don’t you go and fuck your cousin, you dirty ass hippies.”</p><p>The man meets eyes with Rosie and he immediately knew he had to help her. She looked defeated, but a shine of hope that someone, anyone would ever help her out. He knew one of their kind when he saw that look. Just like the group of outcasts he’d gathered over the years since returning home.</p><p>“You’re a…” he glances to Rosie who beams innocence in such a way a man like him is forced to protect it. “Jerk.” He decides instead of saying words that might make the victim feel embarrassed.</p><p>“He’s an… asshole.” She spits out and feels a wave of rush over her as she curses.</p><p>George flinches to hit her and that was enough for the tall stranger. “Alright, you’re killing the vibe, man.” He wraps his neck in a headlock and drags him out of the bar with a shocked Rosie froze for a moment.</p><p>“‘Ello there, love.” The singer from before came in. With gentle hands to her shoulders. “You alright? Hurt?”</p><p>“N-no.” She stutters.</p><p>“Ya sure you’ve gone all rosy in the face.” He fans her with his hand.</p><p>“I always am.” She excuses quickly. “Sorry..I-“</p><p>“No apologies, let’s get you into the fresh air eh? Don’t worry I’m with the big guy what dragged off that unpleasant twat you were dealing with.”</p><p>“Okay.” She says breathily and a little dazed. “Thank you.”</p><p>——-</p><p>“Well, he’s gone.” The tall one says proudly, clapping his hands.</p><p>Rosie stands and looks at the spot where her car had sat. Now empty. “Did he take that yellow car?” She points to the space.</p><p>“Yeah, he headed right for it, had the keys.”</p><p>She nods and sighs. “I’m afraid that was my car he took.” She looks down the ground to figure out her next move from here, now stranded.</p><p>“Oh shit. Oh no, I’m sorry.” The tall man says putting his hands to his mouth. “Ah. Well fuck, honey I really screwed you there didn’t I “</p><p>She blinks with her large pale blue eyes at him with tears withheld. A cherub round face that struck a deep nerve as she tried to hide her upset. “You didn’t mean it. You were trying to help.” She says with a slow nod and inhales.</p><p>“Bad luck innit.” The other rubs her back comfortingly and she didn’t mind it. He seemed like such a nice man. They both were.</p><p>“Can you get a ride home? Call your parents or… something? Or did he just... steal your car?” He towers over her but she doesn’t feel afraid. He rubs his head in thought as he bit his lip.</p><p>“I’ll have to call my mother. He’ll go home to his mother I presume.” She nods. “I can retrieve my car tomorrow. Unless he crashes it.” She sighs. “He was terribly drunk.” Her shoulders sink in disappointment.</p><p>“Look, we’ll get ya home...what’s your name love?”</p><p>“Rose.”</p><p>“Oh, that’s a beautiful name innit? For a beautiful girl.” He holds no ill will as he says it and the compliment hits her hard in her emotionally unstable state. Tears well up for someone, a man, a nice man to be so kind to her to say such a nice thing. “Oh no, don’t cry. We'll get you a cab home. It’s no trouble love. Don’t worry ya pretty little head about it eh?”</p><p>“You’re so nice.” The tears fall fat over her flushed cheeks.</p><p>“Now there’s a good girl.” He brings her in for a hug. “Go call her a car, mate.” He nods away the other fellow.</p><p>“I’m so sorry. I’m not usually like this. I’ve had such a bad day.”</p><p>“Now let’s sit down here and you can tell Danny all about it now little Rosie.” He shoos some men off a nearby bench to sit her down.</p><p>“That your name?” She sniffles</p><p>“It is. I’m Danny and that big man was Declan. You’ll be safe with us. Don’t worry. We are protectors of the oppressed.” He chuckles as he puts an arm on her shoulder as she hides her face from the eyes watching.</p><p>“Oppressed?”</p><p>“Yeah. You know, women… people that are... various beautiful shades of brown, black yellow..." he spoke dramatically with an outstretched hand that captivated her " … homosexuals. You know how it goes, the bad ones yeah? The rebels, the outcasts,  lost children who come across our path.”</p><p>“You’re making us sound like a cult man. Don’t scare her.” Declan laughs and stands guard at her other side. “Taxi’ll be here within the hour.” He gives her a warm smile that crinkles around his eyes. Half of it coverd in a beard that was pointed and a bit fuzzy. His hair was like a dark lions mane around his face and shoulders.</p><p>Rosie contemplated as she looked up at him and wondered if she’d ever seen a man so tall before.</p><p>“He only looks scary,” Danny assures her. “Declan this is Rosie.”</p><p>“Pretty name for a pretty girl.” He gives a gentle nod down at her.</p><p>“Almost exactly what I told her.” Danny beams.</p><p>“Hey Rosie, I’m Declan. Nice to meet you.” He spoke softly and gently as if she might startle if he spoke too loudly at her. “We’re in a band. We travel around. Play music and just...living life y’know. Being free with the life we’ve got.” He spoke proudly as he explained. “We’ve heard a lot of stories. So you aren’t going to tell us anything we’ll judge you for.” He laughs.</p><p>“We’ve all done far worse than whatever spot you’ve got yourself in angel.” Danny joins in the laugh.</p><p>“I’m sorry to cry I’m just feeling a bit overwhelmed.” She wipes her cheeks. “As I was telling Danny I’ve had a very bad day.”</p><p>“Tells us about it then love. Let the evil out.” He motions with his hands as if he were vomiting and it makes her have a soft little giggle. “There she is.” He pushes her chin up gently. “Go on then…”</p><p>Her blubbering story hurt them both as she told of isolation and now betrayal and forced marriage to a terrible man. They’d seen it and heard it before, many in their group had a similar past.</p><p>“You deserve so much better Rosie love,” Danny says with a broadly shaking head. “You are clearly such a bright and lovely girl with a pure heart and you deserve the same given back to you.”</p><p>“I do!” She whines.</p><p>“You can change it all. You’ve got the power. They tell us we don’t. That we can’t. But it’s because they’re afraid of us. Afraid that if we knew what power we had as a collective, as they’ve made us all feel so isolated you see? You can have whatever sort of life you want Rosie. You just have to take it.” Dany speaks intently to her with unwavering eye contact.</p><p>“Take it?” she sniffles.</p><p>“Make the hard choices. You want things to stay like this forever or you want to take a chance and be your own person?” Declan asks with high brows. He had the tougher approach and Danny handled the whimsy of things, it suited their personalities.</p><p>“Like...refuse to marry him?”</p><p>“Not just that. You can refuse to stay with your parents.”</p><p>Rosie laughs as if he’s joking.</p><p>“I’m serious. You could go and live anywhere you wanted. Did you even know that?”</p><p>“No. I thought….”</p><p>“You can make your own choices Rosie,” Declan says as he sees the cab arrive. “You could see the world. Meet anyone. Do anything. ”</p><p>“That… sounds too good to be true.” she looks down at the ground as they walk her towards the car.</p><p>“It’s what we did,” Declan turns to face her. “We didn’t like our lives so we just...changed them. I wanted music and freedom and to be around people who understood me.”</p><p>“We eventually found each other. And our little family has grown ever since.” Danny holds his home like an adoring mum seeing away their daughter on the bus.</p><p>“Family?”</p><p>“We’re just a bunch of misfits that are trying to find our place in this crazy world.” Danny shrugs. “Some of us play music and some just follow us in the summertime to escape their lives. Some just like life on the road. We’ve got all sorts. Certainly had a few girls with stories like yours.”</p><p>“Really?” she rubs her cheeks.</p><p>“We aren’t saying you have to join us. We’re just saying you can make your own choices... have whatever sort of life you want. That’s all. You seemed like you could use the help.”</p><p>“I could.” she lets out a heavy, thoughtful sigh. “Thank you. Both. You were very helpful. I can’t really repay you.”</p><p>“Start making YOURSELF happy Rosie. That’ll be payment enough. You deserve it, pet.” Danny waves her goodbye.</p><p>“Don’t let the man get you down little Rosie.” Declan Nods her way as she gets in the cab to head home.</p><p>—————</p><p>The cab drive home was the most peace she was going to know for the next 24 hours. It started with the cops being at her house when she got there. George had been arrested after being taken to the hospital for injuries from wrecking her car. He was being held and charged and poor Rosie thought she might pass out. </p><p>George’s mother paced and shouted in their house late into the night. Wailing about her “poor” son. What did she do to him to make him behave in such a way? Denial was not just a river she'd read about in the encyclopedias she'd gotten for Christmas.</p><p>Her own mother joined in, what did she do? How was she going to fix this? Why didn’t she have the money to bail him out? She raised her better than this.</p><p>Rosie sat and took it. But each biting remark only made that funny feeling in her stomach grow as each verbally slapped her over and over.</p><p>“Did you ever consider you’re yelling at the wrong person?” She finally says back quietly.</p><p>“For god's sake girl don’t mumble and slouch! It’s ugly!”</p><p>She had been told she was pretty tonight and told she could be and do whatever she wanted. Things she’d never heard before. There were people out there that wouldn’t treat her like this. This isn’t what she wanted. She wouldn’t survive a life like this, it would hollow her out into a shell of who she really was.</p><p>“I said, Did you ever consider you’re yelling at the wrong person?” Her brow was now creased and a rare sight it was. “Did you ever consider your son is a drunk? A hateful loser who has been breastfed too long by his mother?!” She sass’s with balled fists in the meanest and most insulting thing she’d ever said came out of her mouth confidently. “And you! I don’t have any money because you won’t let me work! You won’t let me leave! Or even LIVE!” She throws her arms up in the air. “You’re being bullies when I’m the ONLY one that tried to DO something and HELP him. And this is what I get? No. No more. I don’t have to put up with this...this… BOLOGNA!” She yells and stomps to her room, slamming the door and leaving a room of shocked faces behind. Her father in the kitchen almost choked on the beer he was trying to secretly down to deal with the situation. It was beer and not even liquor what was he becoming?</p><p>Rosie falls to her bed and cries and hits the pillows as her door is quickly bombarded with screeches on the other side. Demands of her to come out and apologize and she just kept shouting “NO!” Over and over to their requests. She took all of her suitcases and laid them on the bed, the voices on the other side growing tired and falling quieter and they tried to listen to what she was doing. She threw her life into those cases. All her favorite things, things she might need, she stuffed them full and sat on them to get them to shut. She angrily pens a letter. Telling them she was tired of being oppressed and lied to and she was going to make herself happy and never see them again. She still signed it with a heart.</p><p>She gets out of her bedroom window and makes her way to the car with the dented fender and busted windows the cops had returned to them. She throws in her bags and whispers a prayer it will start. Someone was looking out for her. She could see the sources of the yelling running out of the house behind her as she headed out of the subdivision. She’d never felt more alive.</p><p>She practically drifted into the gravel parking lot at the roadhouse and held tears of joy from her escape and the fact that the buses and vans were still in sight. The bus was headed out of the parking lot. She leaves the car with the keys in the ignition and straps her bags and suitcases up and runs as fast as her feet will carry her toward the van left in the line.</p><p>“WAIT!” She shouts and pants. “PLEASE WAIT!!” She lets out a scream she didn’t know she had in her. Her lungs burned and her blood pumped faster than it ever had as the van door rolled open. “I’m coming with you!”</p><p>“Is that?” Declan snorts out an amused sound</p><p>“Well fuck me it’s that little girl again.” Danny muses as he looks out the door. “Slow down mate, we got a castaway.”</p><p>“Being. Chased. Keep going.”</p><p>“Chased?” Danny laughs. “By who?” The thought of someone being in pursuit of this tiny white field mouse amused him to no end.</p><p>“I RAN AWAY!” she laughs as she throws her bags to the filled van and is ran full force as the van gets to the highway and she’s yanked inside. The door slams shut behind her and she’s left wheezing and trying to fix her dress and hair.</p><p>“Come now little bird, have a seat.” Danny pulls her down on the bean bag he’s sat on.</p><p>“I. Ran.” She pants out and Danny and Declan laugh but the other eyes in the van are looking at her confused.</p><p>“From the cops?” Someone asks concerned</p><p>“No.” She clears her throat and takes a deep breath as she calms down. “From my house.”</p><p>“Was it as bad as you thought it was gonna be?” Danny pushes back her hair.</p><p>“Worse.” She lets out a nervous laugh. “I can... I can come with you guys right?” She says with puppy eyes.</p><p>“Welcome to our merry little crew Rosie bug.” Danny beams.</p><p>“I ran away too.” Another girl with long beautiful wavy hair says from her spot in the open-backed van, now crowded full. “Husband? Parents?”</p><p>“Both.” Rosie nods and they share a sympathetic nod of understanding.</p><p>“I’m glad you came Rosie.” the girl's eyes showed strong empathy and it made Rosie certain she'd made the right decision.</p><p>“I am too.” She finally catches her breath. “So…” she primps for a moment to gather herself. “Where are we off to first?”</p>
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